Thursday, September 29, 2005

William Peter Blatty's 1971 novel The Exorcist and the Warner Brother's film from 1973 have etched the term "exorcism" forever within our everyday vocabulary. For most of us, images of a demented Linda Blair spitting pea soup, her head spinning around, and all kinds of spooky scary stuff.

The novel was based on eye witness testimony and a 26 page diary (once thought to be 16 pages). Eye witness testimony includes first hand accounts from Jesuit priests, various professors, family members, friends, hospital workers, and even construction workers.

Here are the facts that have been confirmed by various investigators, and many details have been clarified and corrected:

>The family involved remains anonymous, so we'll call them the Doe Family and the boy that was allegedly possessed we'll refer to him as Rob Doe. The Doe Family was from Cottage City Maryland, not Mt. Rainer, Maryland as previously believed.

>January1949, strange things began to happen to 13 year-old Rob. He was being scratched and attacked by something unseen. His parents witnessed his blankets flying about on their own, the bed shaking violently.

>Februrary 26, 1949...The Does were Lutheran, so they turned to Rev. Schulze. Rob spent the night in Shulze's room. There, Schulze witnessed paranormal phenomena, such as a rug moving by itself across the room. After taking Rob to the Mental Hygiene Clinic of the University of Maryland, Rev. Schulze recommended the Doe Family consult Father Hughes of St. James Catholic Church in Mount Rainer.

>End of February, 1949...blessed candles would fly across the room, tables moved, and an attempted baptism went wrong. Rob would curse and act violently. They moved him to Georgetown hospital where Father Hughes began an unsuccessful rite of exorcism...it's unclear if it was authorized by the Church.

>Early March...Rob is released from the hospital, and Mrs. Doe decides to go back to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. She thought maybe the "hauntings" would stop. As soon as they arrive, family members witness various supernatural occurances surrounding Rob.

>March 9, 1949...One of Mrs. Doe's cousins requests the help of her priest professor at St. Louis University, Father Raymond J. Bishop. He sees the scratches on Rob's body, floating objects, and the mattress vibrating on its own.

>March 11, 1949...Father Bishop calls in Father William Bowdern of of St. Francis Xavier Church (at the corner of Grand and Lindell here in St. Louis, pictured left; Fr. Bowdern is pictured right). These two priests and a Jesuit scholar, Walter Halloran, witness the scratches on Rob's abdomen, the bed shaking, Rob speaking to them in Latin and possibly Aramaic, and the 13 year-old boy's violent and strange behavior.

>March 16, 1949...Archbishop Joseph E. Ritter gives Father Bowdern permission to begin the formal rite of exorcism. That night, accompanied by Father Bishop and Walter Halloran, Father Bowdern begin reciting the ritual prayers of exorcism.

>March through April, 1949...Rob's "seizures" become more violent and often is held down by as many as ten people during the exorcism or prayer sessions. He would tear the sheets and even broke Halloran's nose. During this time, Rob is taken back and forth between his relative's house and Alexian Brother's Hospital. Numerous priests, students, and hospital workers witnessed many of the supernatural occurrences in his hospital room .

It was a stressful and scary time. Father Bowdern was known to have lost 40 pounds during the ordeal.

>April 18, 1949...The Final Exorcism...Fr. Bowdern places various religious medals around Rob, and instructs him to hold a crucifix. Rob starts to become possessed, and screams that the medals were becoming hot...soon, he is in full demonic possession and starts hissing and flicking his tongue like a snake.

The rite continues when suddenly, in a different masculine voice Rob says, "Satan! Satan! I am St. Michael! I command you, Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave this body, in the name of Dominus, immediately! Now! Now! Now!" Rob has one last spasm before falling quiet and witnesses reported hearing a "gunshot sound" throughout the hospital at that moment.

The story made headlines, and several family members told the story to newsreporters. Rob grew up, had a normal life, had three children, and resided somewhere in Maryland. Rob, if still alive, would be 70 years old today.

Walter Halloran (pictured left) became a priest and often talked about his experience with others. He passed away just this spring.

Fr. Bowdern passed away in 1983. He never publicly talked about his experience. With his report to the Church, he received 41 signatures from those who testified to witnessing paranormal phenomena with this case.

Following the exorcism, the hospital staff at Alexia avoided the room. The smells and cold air still emanated from under the doorway. No one ever used the room again. The entire wing of the hospital eventually was sealed off, and was demolished.Before demolition, the crew found a copy of the exorcist's diary, which was given to hospital administrators. The diary was William Blatty's basis his book.

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comments:

This film has always scared the shit out of me, not because of the Hi-Tech special effects but the very fact that its based on a true story.I have only watched it once, never agin I watched it many years ago when it was still banned from DVD , TV etc .I managed to pick it up on a german satellite channel , if was in english but had german subtitles...I was too scared after it finished to even let the dog out to pee!

Today the very sound of the music is enought to send shivers down my spine, I remember my BF telling me when we first met about it being based on a true STL story and I had forgotten all about it till now.If I dont sleep tonight I know who to blame.LOL

I've never been interested to watch the film, although from what you've posted it seems to be very realistic. Maybe that's why it's so scary?

There's no doubt that something unusual was happening. The witnesses all seem reliable, etc.

Not being Catholic, I don't hold to their rite as such, but there's plenty of Scripture in support of demonic activity -- Jesus, Paul and most all of the early Christians ran into very similar phenomenon. It's not usual in our society for it to be documented (maybe the devil doesn't need to work so hard to lead us off course? ha!) but in many places around the world you can find many, credible accounts of exactly this sort of thing happening as regular occurrences--even today.

For me, I guess if you accept Christ's commission to preach the gospel today, then you ought to also accept his commission to "lay hands on the sick and they shall recover" and "cast out demons in my [Jesus'] name" today. That the subject in this case was completely delivered and went on to lead a very normal life would be normative if God's involved, I would think.

That would mean this is certainly no hoax nor figment of someone's imagination, but simply a very Scriptural occurrence that happened to be recorded. Perhaps if more of them were made public and investigated, the deliverence ministry of God's people (the Church) would gain greater acceptance and more people who are tormented in this way could be set free to enjoy a normal life and worship God.

I just re-read my post and it looks from my Hi-Tech comment could be a little confusing to those who havent seen it...It was meant to be "Dry" humour but failed!If you mean Hi Tech as in pea soup squirting out of the girls mouth then I guess it could be seen as Hi Tech..but no its a 70's flick.I think though if it had all todays super special effects that that would probably take away some of the essence, or maybe thats just me?

In middle school, I had a friend that had to get counseling for some time because he watched The Exorcist on cable when his parents weren't home.It really messed him up for a long time.There's a bunch of stuff I had to cut from this post...Rob's mother and aunt were very much into the occult and messed around with a ouija board. Immediately after his aunt died, all this stuff started happening. Those oujia boards scare me...I wouldn't mess with that stuff.

Did you ever hear that story about Blatty meeting a little old woman in Washington DC who spoke in the voices of a little girl and little boy... then after she died the cops found skeletons of a little boy and girl under he floor? Apparently she completely frightened Blatty. I want to read mor about it somewhere so if you know of anything please post info or a link. Thankyou.

Hello. I stumbled across this place while looking for blogs from Missouri. I didn't realize that The Exorcist had any St. Louis connection, before reading your post. I've seen the movie twice, but won't watch it, its sequels or do-overs, or anything about Emily Rose, again. The whole thing is fascinating, though. Thanks for posting the background info regarding the family's occult activity. I wish that had been included in the film.

I've added you to my Bloglines, and I hope there are more spooky stories to come.

This movie has scared the heck out of me both times I watched it. Just the thought that something like that had actually occurred is frightening. In fact, the first thing I thought about when I was reading this post was the part in the movie where the girl is in a back bend position walking down the stairs. EEk!!

I had a Ouija board when I was in the 8th grade. At the time, we thought it was all fun and games. We would push it around and have it say stuff. Then one night 2 of my friends and I were sitting on the floor getting it ready to play. We had eached placed our hands on the planchet and I was about to start moving it when it moved on its own. I assumed one of the other 2 were moving it. To this day, nobody owns up to moving it, and nobody will talk about what happened. For some reason one of us asked who 'ouija' was, and it said 'you know'. The freezer door flew open, the light went off, and that was the last time we used it. It was my game, and I have no idea where it even went. It just disappeared at some point after that. I'm sure there's a perfectly good explenation as to where it went, but, don't ask me.

A guy I used to know was once employed at Alexian Brothers Hospital in the maintenance department. He told me that before the wing where the exorcism took place was demolished, they tried reapeatedly -- without success -- to paint the walls in the room. But these stains (from the exorcism) kept coming through each coat of paint. I think that's when they decided to seal the room off and then the whole wing.

I was reading it the emily rose case and now I was in this one, when suddenly I hear a spoon falling to the kitchen sink... Ok, just a spoon falling from a plate to the sink.The thing is I hear it twice, exactly the same sound... but that is not all, now I just remembered, I have no spoons.

it just so happens that i beleive somone very close to me is demon posssessed and her name is wendy as a child her own father sexullay molested her and all four of her brothers this family was supposed to be highly christians.. but what happened today she sees and hears things also just this week she called me and said somone urineated in her closet i beleive she did this also in the four mounths i known this young 20 something lady she has maybe taken a bath once... the smell from this person is ungodly unreal yet it is... whenevrer shes around u can fell this horrod darkness i could go on and on please if anybody can help me contact me at robinshawdowrobin@gmail.com

hey i am very much into these kind of storys etci enjoy clairvoyancy i sometimes lie there in my bed things will happen some ppl say it is just my mind playing tricks but when my firends who have been me one certain time will explain what happend one night. when we went for a late night walk have been erm horrified by what has happend we were walking by the field over the road from my house that has been proven to be haunted etc was in the paper lol anyway we were walking there was a barbed wire fence to my right and woods to my left someone or somthing was watching me i could feel it then it spoke to me it said "leave.... leave now "at that point i passed out and hit the floor my friends had to carry me back home this is one of the most horryfiing experiences off my life i am not a man of faith but the lord does help sometimes.thank you for reading take this blog how you will my friends will recolect what happend that night with out mne even talking to them take this how you will

well maybe everyone should take into account that most posessions occur around christain based familys and persons. younger people are more prone to possesion because they are more linked to the spiritual world(i researched this many times)If you look into demonology or satanism, they all say that demons are very proud creatures and get easily offended by christains or any person who down talks them. when I was a young teen I did black magic based on opening portals to hell. i was the only one not haunted because one I didn't fear demons, two i didn't follow god,and three I didn't believe that anything was purely evil. so as you can see i was less ofensive towards demons. my mother was severly haunted by these demons and I was fascinated by them. they would make themselves known to me every once in a while, but never possesed me or hurt me in any way. they even showed me thier faces, which to this day i find interesting and feel in awe of the experience. as for my poor mother, they would walk around her bed at night, make nioses to scare her, not sure what else they did she kind of never talks about such things. she eventually got out of bed one night and yelled at me for doing witchcraft, and said if I did not stop she would throw me out of the house. so i stoped doing it and eventaully it just stoped. so there is what I believe to be true. so I think that some people that are christain should respect satan and his demons or they are prone to this sort of destruction. even most pastors will tell you to show some respect but never fear them. even now they tell you to not fear god as far as I know, because I was christain for a short while. so have respect and never fear. keep this in mind and you will be fine!

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About Me

Blogging since 2005.
Medical sales warrior by day, writing ninja by night...
I am the author of The Mechanica Wars series. The first book, Dragonfly Warrior, will be published in January, 2014 by 4 Wing Press.
I love science fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, biographies, and chocolate chip cookies.
info@jaynoel.com